I'm so proud of you because...

Ella has a rather lengthy bedtime routine. Always has. One would think as your child gets older it would get shorter, but in our household, the opposite holds true.

Ella's bedtime routine consists of:

1) bath (which can easily last 30 minutes-she's a mermaid I tell ya)
2) brusing teeth and going pee pee
3) PJ's and bedtime diaper (we're not even close to being night potty trained)
4) two books (and she usually picks very long books like Go Dog Go)
5) then we sit in the rocking chair and open the shades and say goodnight to everyone
6) sing 2 songs-Ahhh My Baby and You Are My Sunshine (which Ella always sings with me)
7) go to the big girl bed get tucked in
8) sing "the goodnight song", which is a song I used to sing to the kids I babysat.

If we forget to do any of the above steps, Ella is quick to remind you.

In the past couple of weeks we've added one more step and this is by far my most favorite moment of the day with Ella.

Between steps 7 and 8 we now tell Ella what she did that day that made us proud of her.
When she gets settled in to bed she gets the biggest smile on her face, giggles, and says, "Proud of me because?"

We then tell her, I'm so proud of you because you shared with your sister today, I'm so proud of you because even though you didn't want to leave the pool, you listened to mommy and got out, I'm so proud of you because you took a shower like a big girl this morning (this is her new routine-she still takes her evening bath but hops in with Ricardo in the mornings)etc...

She just lights up with each new thing and nods her head and says, "um hm" when I list a new thing, like she's saying, "Yup, I'm a good girl."

This makes my heart smile. I am so proud of Ella. The changes she's made in the past year astound me. She's growing in to such a sweet, loving little girl-no longer a baby. She's my buddy.

We're flying to CA at the end of August and while I'm usually nervous about flying with Ella, I have no concerns this time. She's a seasoned traveler and I have no doubt that she'll be a good girl. Sofia on the other hand...yikes.

LBI Part 3 AKA How we tortured Brian with the girls

Wow, this is getting long, isn't it?

So, there really isn't much more except for girls night out (still waiting for pics) and the final night and videos of how we tortured, I mean trained Brian for parenthood.

The last night we had a nice BBQ as a "family".

Ella, Staci, Jack, and Christina

Ella also found a little friend-a crab shell, which she rocked and sang rockabye baby to. She wanted to bring it home with us. This child loves animals!

Can you believe that in an entire week we didn't get one picture together as a family or a picture of Ricardo and I together?? That's just sad.

Luckily, as we were locking up the house we remembered to take a group picture! Unfortunately, the girls were already loaded in their carseats.

Brian and Staci, Me and Ricardo, Jack and Christina

As for Brian and impending fatherhood;the girls were great practice. I really have to say at the beginning of the week he was almost afraid to hold Sofia. By the end of the week he was taking her out of her stroller and walking around with her. He's going to be a great father.

Changing Sofia's diaper

Brushing Ella's hair (with a beer in one hand)

I'm quite bummed because I've been trying for hours to load the video of Brian getting Sofia dressed. It's great but I think it's too big for blogger. Oh well...just take my word for it. It's funny!

So our trip is over and we're back to life as we know it. It was a wonderful week and I feel so lucky to have been able to spend it with such great friends.

LBI Part 2

On Wednesday we went to this awesome water park called Thundering Surf (click the name to see the website). I really wish I bought a waterproof camera because we had so much fun.

Ella was a crazy dare devil. We started off at Cowabunga Beach (the kids area) on a pretty fast slide (or so I thought). I asked a woman if she thought Ella could handle the big grown up slides and she said no way, her 6 year old did it once and wouldn't do it again...

Well, they have these awesome double inner tubes so we could go with Ella and she went down 8 times! 8 times! She would have gone more but our 2 hours was up. She loved it! I think I was more afraid than her.


And Sofia was a maniac on the little kid slides. I think she has even less fear than Ella!

But alas, no pictures. :(

That evening we went to Fantasy Island, which is an amusement park and arcade, with the whole gang.

Ella had a blast. Once again the fearless flyer came out.

First we stopped at Heavenly Pizza so the girls could eat. Here's Staci, Christina, Ricardo and the girls.

Fantasy Island here we come!

Ricardo and Ella on the tilt a wheel Here's a video of the two crazies!

I chose to ride a tamer ride with Ella. She LOVES to wave while on rides. She actually announces before a ride that she expects us to stand and wave to her.

After we rode a couple of rides with her, she felt brave enough to start riding on her own...well maybe not totally brave. Do you like the look of terror and the hanging on for dear life? There was no waving on this ride. But she did like it and she asked to do it again.
It was so cute because Sofia saw us waving to Ella and joined in. The last ride of the evening was the Giant Wheel.
Ella rode with Ricardo while I stayed with Sofia. As Ricardo came around from the top he looked pale and kept mouthing something to me.

Turns out the Giant Wheel was just a wee bit too GIANT for Ella. When they got to the top, Ella looked down and announced "I'm peeing!" and sure enough, she did.

So that was the end of that night....but Ella and I went back together on Friday night to use up the rest of our tokens and she had a blast and rode every ride alone!

That evening was boys night, so the girls stayed in but girls night in was still pretty darn fun.

Thursday during the day we just hung out and walked around Bay Village. Ella was so excited to get an ice cream with rainbow sprinkles.

There was a great park right on the bay which the girls loved. This picture of Ella and Ricardo throwing rocks into the bay makes me a little sad. When did she get so tall and lean? Where did my little pudgy baby go?

Oh, here she is!
Thursday night was Girls Night Out. I'm waiting for pictures from Staci since I forgot my camera but we had a great time. We started off going to a nice seafood dinner and then played some games at the arcade, won Ella a couple of dinky toys, then went back to the bar and danced to the DJ....man did we feel old.

Friday was our last full day (sniff sniff). It was also a perfect day, so we of course headed back out to the beach.

One of my favorite things about the beach is how everyone just rides up on their beach cruisers and leave them at the bottom of the ramp along with their flip flops. Views of the shore
All the tweens and teens sat up on the ramp up to the beach. Once again, Ella wanted to be like them and would try to sneak away from us on the beach to "hang out".
Sofia enjoys climbing on to anything and everything, including the beach buggy. She also had a blast putting on and taking off my sunglasses, over and over and over and over again. Then we packed up and headed back to the beach house to get ready for our last night BBQ.


Part 3 is next....

Back from our vacation in LBI (Long Beach Island, NJ) Part 1

Last week we rented a house in LBI for a week. It was such a great trip and just what we all needed.

We went with our (childless) friends from San Francisco; Jack and Christina Cuddy, and Brian and Staci Kavanagh.

The girls were over the moon with happiness from all the attention they received and Ricardo and I were ecstatic to spend a full week with such great friends.

We were sad to come home but this vacation will forever bring happy memories.

We arrived early evening on Saturday the 19th and left at 10 am on Saturday the 27th. In that time we packed in many visits to the beach, swiming with a friend from home who has a beach house one block over from where we were staying, a trip to the Water Park-where Ella was a total dare devil and went do the biggest slide multiple times, bike riding, BBQ's, two trips to Fantasy Island, boys night out, and girls night out.

I'll stop talking now and leave you with some pics!

The first night we just relaxed and Ricardo walked Brian (dad to be) and Jack (future dad to be) through his baby registry. It was quite entertaining how serious this was.




Sunday we hit up the beach, where Ella was buried in the sand


And then took a nap with Jack

Our friend Shannon who now lives in NYC happened to be renting a house in LBI with her family as well. They invited us over for a BBQ on Monday night.

Ella was obsessed with Christina and wouldn't leave her side all night. This is what she did when we asked her to show us her "happy face"...hmmm, well unless she's the Joker, I'm not sure that's exactly a "happy face".

Sofia had a great time playing with Shannon's 13 month old niece Sofia. Yup, they were Sofia Squared (and yes I realize my 11 month old Sofia is larger than 13 month old Sofia).


I made cupcakes for dessert and frosted them pink, blue and yellow since Staci isn't finding out the sec of her baby. We made her close her eyes and pick on to determine what she was having. Pink for girl, Blue for boy, and Yellow for hermaphidite...this was very scientific.

Ok, so we rigged it a bit....

Ella liked her cupcake. Pink for girl, DUH!

On Tuesday we decided to rent bikes and ride around. We had a great time and Ella begged us to get the bikes again.

Ella all dressed and ready to go
Walking to get the bikes...thank god for the ergo carrier. We used it A LOT!
Sofia in her helmet

Ricardo and Ella on their bike
Sofia was missing her nap to go riding and she was yawning before we even got on the bikes. She got very quiet about 5 minutes in and I yelled up to Ricardo, "I wonder if Sofia will fall asleep in here." A woman walking by laughed and said, "She already is."

This is what we found when we turned around.
She slept like this for over 30 minutes! Needless to say this caused quite a few laughs from passerbys.

After naps we headed back out to the beach where Ella enjoyed ice cream from the ice cream truck. It's really neat how the ice cream man pulls up to each entrance and come out to the sand and rings a bell until kids start sprinting to his truck....no annoying ice cream truck music.
For her part, Chub Chubs LOVED the beach too. She just wanted to walk all over and enjoyed chillin in the baby pool filled with ocean water.

Ella so badly wanted to be a big kid. She found a group of girls and started following the around...I don't think she got that they were running FROM her. Oh well, she had fun.

But she did have a hard time keeping up...OOPPS!
The spill didn't phase her. This child is a mermaid. She just loves being at the beach. I guess being born in San Diego, it's in her blood. Look at this face! Pure bliss!



That evening, the Cuddys and Kavanaghs headed down to Atlantic City and we got back on our bikes and rode to dinner.

Daddy and Sofia

Poor Ella, no nap and lots of playing makes for one tired girl.

But she perked up shortly after

Sofia loves to give high fives now

To Be Continued...

A Star is Born

Ella and her friend, Jackson, made the local paper, The Ridgewood News, on 4th of July. They were the cover of the Arts & Leisure section (click to enlarge).

Papa Rick

Today our next door neighbor, Rick AKA Papa Rick, had open heart surgery on his aortic valve. He's out of surgery now but the surgeon told Susan AKA SuSu that it was the worst aortic valve that he had ever seen. Not only was it almost completely closed but also that he had a congential defect of two versus three flaps in the valve. The Surgeon also advised that Rick had an aortic anueryism which they cut out and replaced with a polyethelene tube.

Please think positive thoughts for Rick and his recovery.

Ricardo and I thank our lucky stars every day that we bought this house next to Susan and Rick. They are more than just neighbors to us. They are family. Our girls love them like grandparents and Ricardo and I love them like parents....really really young parents. :)

Ella drew a picture for Papa Rick last night and I asked her if she wanted me to write To Papa Rick and she said no. Write I Love Papa Rick. Awwww. Be ALLL better Papa Rick.

Block Party Fun

Today was our neighborhood block party and we had a great time. The girls fell asleep right as it was starting so we had a couple of hours just to hang out kid free, which was nice. Nicole (Mia and Ben's mom), who lives one street over was manning the temporary tattoo booth in front of our house so she came over while her kids were napping to set up shop.

There's quite a height difference between Nicole and I, so I tried to bend down to get to her level.

Oh forget it! I look like an Amazon!

Mia and Ella were so excited to play together and didn't leave each others side all day. They were so cute!

First it was swimming

Then they walked together to the water balloon toss (which I might add was pure comedy).

They finished off the day by dancing together.

Hey ladies! The conga line is over there!

Trying to do the Chicken Dance with the older girls...oy

After we put the girls down for the night, Ricardo, I (or is it me? I never get that right), and the baby monitor headed back outside to chat with more neighbors. It was a nice way to meet some people we have never talked to and to learn new things about people we already knew.